Rainsbrook secure training centre

Rainsbrook secure training centre

Willoughby Near Rugby Warwickshire CV23 8SY

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Monitoring visit

Inspected under the secure training centres inspection framework

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Information about this secure training centre

Rainsbrook secure training centre is operated by MTC. The centre provides accommodation for up to 87 children aged 12 to 17 years who are serving a custodial sentence or who are remanded to custody by the courts. There were 37 children resident at the time of the monitoring visit.

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Information about this secure training centre

Education is provided on site in dedicated facilities by Novus. Healthcare services are provided by Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust under a contract with NHS England. The commissioning of health services at this centre is the statutory responsibility of NHS England under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

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This monitoring visit

As a result of the serious shortfalls found at the monitoring visit on 10 December 2020, the joint inspectorates invoked the urgent notification process. This process is set out in the protocol between Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons and the Ministry of Justice and is included in the joint inspection framework for secure training centres. As a result of this action, no children have been placed in the centre since December 2020. In response to the urgent notification process, senior leaders have developed an action plan to improve practice and the day-to-day experiences of children living in the centre. During this visit, some early signs of improvement were seen. However, much of the action plan has yet to be implemented. Some actions that have been completed have not yet been embedded, or are yet to show a demonstrable positive impact on children’s lives. At the visit in December 2020, inspectors found that children in the Reverse Cohort Unit (RCU), where children

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This monitoring visit

newly admitted to the centre are placed, were kept in their rooms for excessive periods of up to 23.5 hours. As no children have been placed at the centre since December 2020, the RCU is not currently active. Consequently, inspectors were not able to assess children’s experiences when they first move into the centre. This will be assessed at a future visit.

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This monitoring visit

The main focus of this monitoring visit was to assess children’s current experiences of living at the centre, particularly in relation to:

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This monitoring visit

◼ being kept in their rooms for excessive periods ◼ senior managers’ understanding of what is happening for children on a daily basis ◼ the extent to which senior managers now provide clear guidance to staff about how to care for children in the centre, and have arrangements in place to assure themselves that staff understand, and are following, the guidance ◼ assessing the progress of the implementation of the urgent notification action plan and the impact this has had for children in the centre.

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This monitoring visit

This monitoring visit was unannounced. The centre was a designated COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak site at the time of the visit. Thirteen children had tested positive for COVID-19 and the centre had in place appropriate arrangements for self-isolation and shielding for children. Arrangements for children who had tested positive for COVID-19 were not less favourable than for other children at the centre.

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This monitoring visit

Inspectors found that children are not now locked in their rooms for excessive periods of time. Children can interact and socialise with staff and peers on the living units and have access to outdoor activities and fresh air. Children are now appropriately out of their rooms for most of the day, but many said they were bored during the day.

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This monitoring visit

The centre is clean and tidy, and inspectors observed no signs of litter or graffiti. The children’s living units have begun to be redecorated. Children told inspectors that they have been consulted about how the communal areas should be furnished, and new furniture and paint have been ordered. Children’s rooms are clean, and children said staff help them to keep their rooms clean. Children can personalise their rooms with photographs and pictures. There was a lot of activity at the centre at the time of the visit, with a sense of positivity about the refreshment programme and the impact an improved environment could have on children and staff.

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This monitoring visit

Inspectors observed staff engaging with children effectively, and interactions were very positive, including the nursery nurses delivering taste exploration sessions with the children. The children told inspectors that they found the exercise interesting and felt engaged. Children spoke highly of most staff who work at the centre.

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This monitoring visit

A safeguarding matter that had been raised with the centre at previous visits had reoccurred. Inspectors raised this with the director, who gave assurances that this was being managed at the appropriate level.

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This monitoring visit

The director and deputy director visit children on the living units every day, and have meaningful interactions with them. Children told inspectors that they are listened to by the director and deputy director, and that their requests are carefully considered; they are not just agreed to and then not delivered. It was clear that the director knew children within the centre individually and had taken time to speak with children about their circumstances.

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This monitoring visit

Violence and self-harm within the centre had increased over the three months prior to this visit. The centre’s attempts to manage the safety of children during the COVID-19 outbreak, by separating children into ‘bubbles’ of those who had tested positive and those who had tested negative for COVID-19, resulted in issues with children’s compatibility and an increase in both peer-on-peer violence and assaults on staff. The director has taken action to address this, but it is too soon to know whether this action will be effective in reducing the number of incidents of self-harm and assault.

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This monitoring visit

Children completed a survey to help senior leaders understand why some children had reported feeling unsafe at the assurance visit in October 2020. As a result, targeted safeguarding sessions are scheduled to address the issues identified. It is too early to test the impact of these sessions on improving children’s feelings of safety within the centre.

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This monitoring visit

Arrangements for education during the COVID-19 pandemic are ineffective. Children told inspectors that education work packs are not ‘stretching’ them in terms of their learning, and work is not marked. While children receive some direct teaching sessions delivered by teachers on the living units, this is not an environment conducive to effective learning. Centre staff try to stand in for teachers by doing schoolwork with children, which is admirable but is not an appropriate substitute for learning delivered by teachers.

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This monitoring visit

The director demonstrated to inspectors that management oversight and understanding at director and deputy director level have been strengthened. There is a clear acknowledgement by the director that a culture change within the centre is essential to ensure that children are safe and well cared for. Language used by the director in conversations with inspectors, and within the centre’s action plan, is an early indicator of this – for example, the word ‘programme’ replacing the prison terminology of ‘regime’.

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This monitoring visit

Staff told inspectors that the director demonstrates a genuine interest by talking to staff and children regularly. Most staff told us that communication has improved, and they feel they are kept informed of any changes at the centre. Children and staff told inspectors that, although they see the director and his deputy frequently, the other members of the senior management team are much less visible, and children consider them to be less helpful when they visit the living units. This heavy reliance on the director and his deputy to promote a positive culture and make the necessary changes to practice is unlikely to be sustainable unless their positive approach is reflected across the senior management team.

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This monitoring visit

The director, through the urgent notification action plan, has established regular senior management team meetings that have a robust structure. He has implemented a daily occurrence book on each unit to ensure that the programme, and any divergence from it, is recorded. The duty director is responsible for the daily auditing of these books, and for providing reports to daily operational meetings. Learning from this is shared with staff at daily staff meetings. An example of the effectiveness of this new measure was seen by inspectors when care staff, and the deputy director, intervened appropriately with one child who was refusing to leave his room.

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This monitoring visit

Additional resources at management level and additional scrutiny as a result of the urgent notification process have increased both oversight and support provided to the centre. The director fully acknowledges that, while inspectors saw some improvements in practice at this visit, there is still much work to be done to implement, and fully embed, best practice and cultural change within the centre. The urgent notification action plan is comprehensive, but it is in the very early stages of its implementation. It has not yet led to the extensive improvements required to meet all of the recommendations made at the assurance and monitoring visits of October and December 2020.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10 December 2020 Monitoring visit Urgent notification process invoked 26–29 October 2020 Assurance visit Not applicable 17–21 February 2020 Inspection Requires improvement to be good

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Recommendations

◼ The centre should ensure that the extensive recommendations from the February 2020 inspection are addressed.

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Information about this inspection

The purpose of this visit was to monitor the action taken and the progress made by the secure training centre since its last inspection.

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Information about this inspection

The centre was inspected under the secure training centres inspection framework.

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Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out in accordance with Rule 43 of the Secure Training Centre Rules (produced in compliance with Section 47 of the Prison Act 1952, as amended by Section 6(2) of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994), Section 80 of the Children Act 1989. Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector’s power to inspect secure training centres is provided by section 146 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006.

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Information about this inspection

Joint inspections involving Ofsted, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are permitted under paragraph 7 of Schedule 13 to the Education and Inspections Act 2006. This enables Ofsted’s Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector to act jointly with other public authorities for the efficient and effective exercise of her functions.

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Information about this inspection

All inspections carried out by Ofsted, HMIP and CQC contribute to the UK’s response to its international obligations under the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. OPCAT requires that all places of detention are visited regularly by independent bodies – known as the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) – which monitor the treatment of and conditions for detainees.

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Inspectors

Pauline Higham, Ofsted, Her Majesty’s Inspector Esra Sari, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons, Inspector achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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